Proposals for the Rio de Janeiro security crisis

Back in February, Brazilian President Michel Temer announced that the Armed Forces would take control of the security apparatus of the city of Rio de Janeiro, in order to “put an end to the great threats to the public order.” Since then, however, violence rates have failed to go down, and deaths related to police action have increased. Many organizations have denounced abuses of citizens’ civil rights, especially in communities on the outskirts of the city.

The intervention will come to term on December 31, 2018 – the same day Rio de Janeiro Governor Luiz Fernando Pezão will leave office. Rio will have a new governor, who will have to deal with the aftermath of the intervention. With that in mind, think tank Igarapé Institute has elaborated a set of proposals to deal with Rio’s worrisome violence rates.

The document, called “Agenda Rio Seguro” (which can be translated as “Agenda for a Safe Rio”), is the result of eight months of work between public safety experts from the...